Sunday, August 10, 2008

R.I.P.: Isaac Hayes

This is so, so sad: ["Isaac Hayes dies at 65"].I still listen to Hayes' music and not just "Shaft." I have "Black Moses," "Hot Buttered Soul" remastered, and a bunch of stuff downloaded from emusic.com, on regular rotation at work. I often listen to his stuff on Tuesday when I'm trying to put the newspaper to bed. The songs are nice and long, they tend to groove well, and have great instrumentation, and tons of dated, sexual lyrics."Hot Buttered Soul" opens with a 10-plus minute version of "Walk On By," the Burt Bacharach classic, with its stops and starts and powerful backup singers. The incredibly funky "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" has blasting wah-wah and a groove that just won't stop. But the highlight is "By the Time we get to Phoenix," clocking in at more than 17 minutes, with a very long intro where Hayes talks about a friend whose woman has done him wrong."Black Moses" is another masterpiece, a double-CD full of standout tracks including the hilarious "Good Love," where the song goes "now write this number down mama," in case you have to call "Good Love-69-9-69" [this was back when phones didn't have area codes and you'd dial two letters before the rest of the numbers]. A cover of The Carpenters' "Close to Me" and "Never Can Say Goodbye" show Hayes making others' songs his own, while he shows off his rapping in the "Ike's Rap" tracks.My uncle once joked after Hayes filed for bankruptcy one year that he was the only guy in music who blew through three or four fortunes. It seemed like he would put out an album and make a ton of money and then blow it all.Emusic.com has a whole slew of stuff by Hayes for download including long lost albums "Chocolate Chip," "Joy," "Live at the Sahara Tahoe," and others.Strangely, I was just talking to co-workers about trying to get to see him on tour, since he has been touring off-and-on this summer at various places around the country.

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I'm Tony Schinella, an award-winning newspaper editor/journalist and radio broadcaster, currently living in Concord, N.H. This profile links to a number of my blogs including Politizine.com, the Taste the Floor radio program website, OurConcord.com, as well as media analysis and an analysis of the 2000 election. Opinions and comments are my own and not those of my employer. Feel free to participate. Email: politizine-at-yahoo.com. Copyright, 2002-2017, Tony Schinella

Winner, Media Award, from the Concord Grange #322 on April 30, 2012, for work with Concord NH Patch. It was the Grange's first ever media award. "No matter what it is, (Tony's) out covering it. He's honest ... he tells the truth and he doesn't fudge it, no matter what," Dick Patten, Concord Grange. View the video clip from the event by clicking here.

Winner, five New England Newspaper & Press Association awards for 2010 including third place award for General Excellence; second place award for Local Election Coverage; second and third place awards, in separate class divisions, for Educational Reporting; and second place for Overall Design, for work with the Belmont Citizen-Herald and WickedLocalBelmont.com.

"Tony Schinella is one of New England’s journalistic gems – a reporter’s reporter and sharp observer of anything that sparks his interest." - David Bernstein, political reporter, the Boston Phoenix

Finalist, Best of Gatehouse 2008 Newspaper of the Year [Non-daily], Belmont Citizen-Herald.

Winner, 2007 Appreciation Award from the Concord Pineconia Grange for work with non-profit groups and community service.

Winner, 2005 New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters Golden Mike Award in the Feature Story category for "Trains," an audio feature about the Hooksett Lions Club Model Train Event, for WKXL 1450 news radio.

On problems with talk radio, from a column published in The Winchester Star: "Schinella has written a worthwhile column on the demise of talk radio." - Dan Kennedy, The Boston Phoenix, Dec. 6, 2002.

On the lack of local talent in the Boston talk radio market: "[Schinella's] a bright, articulate guy, and he espouses a hard-edged political view that's seldom heard these days." - Dan Kennedy, The Boston Phoenix, "The Death of Talk Radio," May 8, 1997.